AndesThe great chain of peaks on South America's Pacific side. The range runs through seven countries, from Venezuela to Chile and Argentina.
chasquiAn Inca messenger who traveled on foot at a run. A chasqui might carry a quipu together with a spoken message.
CuscoThe chief city of the Inca, in a high valley of Peru. It lies about 3,400 meters above sea level, and the Inca held it to be the navel of the world.
empireSeveral countries or peoples ruled from one center. No empire in the Americas before Europeans came was larger than the Inca's.
IncaA people of Peru who ruled much of western South America. From 1438 the Inca spread out from the valley of Cusco.
llamaA long-necked cousin of the camel, kept in herds. The word llama comes from Quechua.
Machu PicchuA royal Inca estate of stone above a river canyon in Peru. It was built around 1450 and came to the notice of the wider world in 1911.
QuechuaThe language of the Inca and of many Andean people now. Several million people speak a Quechua language today.
quipuCords with knots tied in them to store numbers. The color of a cord and the kind and place of each knot all carried meaning.
roadA prepared track for people to walk or ride along. Inca roads added up to about 40,000 kilometers, and no wheels rolled on them.
Sapa IncaThe title of the man who ruled the Inca lands. Sapa means the only one, and the Sapa Inca was honored as a child of the sun.
terraceA level strip of field built like a stair on a slope. Stone walls hold up the terraces that the Inca built on steep slopes.
Show all 36 terms (24 more)
Farming, work and travel 12
altitudeHow high a place lies, counted from the sea's surface. Machu Picchu stands at an altitude of 2,430 meters, about 1,000 meters lower than Cusco.
aylluA community of kin who farmed and owned land in common. Ayllus are older than the Inca Empire, and some Andean communities still live as ayllus today.
foot plowA pointed pole pushed into the soil with the foot. The farmer stepped on a crossbar to drive the point into the ground.
freeze-dryTo preserve food by freezing it and then drying it. Andean farmers freeze-dry potatoes in the frosty nights and the strong sun; the result is called chuño.
mit'aWork owed to the Inca state, done by turns. Mit'a workers built the roads, the bridges and the terraces.
pack animalAn animal used to carry loads on its back. Llama caravans carried goods along the Inca roads.
potatoA starchy tuber first farmed in the Andes. People in what is now southern Peru began growing potatoes at least 7,000 years ago.
relayA team effort in which each runner covers one stretch. Relays of chasquis could carry a message more than 200 kilometers in a day.
rope bridgeA hanging bridge of thick ropes across a gorge. Inca rope bridges were braided from grass or reeds and carried people and llamas.
storehouseA building where food and goods are kept for later. The Inca built storehouses by the tens of thousands and filled them against years of bad harvests.
tamboA rest house with supplies beside an Inca road. Travelers could spend the night at a tambo, and the next one was about a day's walk on.
textileFabric produced on a loom from spun thread. The Inca prized their finest textiles above gold and silver.
Building, counting and the Spanish 12
censusA full tally of a country's people, taken by its rulers. The Inca recorded their census on quipus.
citadelA stronghold built on a height above a town. Sacsayhuamán, on the northern edge of Cusco, is a citadel with walls of huge fitted stones.
conquistadorA Spanish soldier who conquered lands in the Americas. The word is Spanish for conqueror.
decimalCounting by tens, hundreds and thousands. The Inca tied numbers into their quipus in a decimal system much like our own.
earthquakeA jolt that makes the land shake and buildings sway. Inca walls of fitted stone have stood through five centuries of earthquakes.
Inti RaymiThe Inca festival of the sun. In Cusco today no celebration of the year draws a bigger crowd.
masonryWalls and buildings made by fitting stones or bricks. In Cusco, later buildings still stand on walls of Inca masonry.
mortarA paste that hardens between stones to hold them together. The finest Inca walls have none: each stone was shaped to fit its neighbors.
provinceOne of the large parts that a country is divided into. The Inca Empire had four great provinces, each with a governor who reported to the ruler in Cusco.
TawantinsuyuThe Inca's own name for their empire. Its meaning in Quechua is four parts joined as one.
trapezoidA four-sided shape like a triangle with the tip cut off. The doorways and windows of Inca buildings are trapezoids.
World Heritage SiteA place on the United Nations list of sites to protect. Cusco and Machu Picchu were both listed in 1983, and the Inca roads in 2014.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-12. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the English Wikipedia article on the term (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Inca Empire, History of the Incas, Cusco, Andes, Sapa Inca, Quechuan languages, Terrace (earthworks), Quipu, Llama, Chasqui, Inca road system, Machu Picchu, Potato, Chuño, Freeze drying, Qullqa, Mit'a, Ayllu, Tambo (Inca structure), Inca rope bridge, Andean textiles, Pack animal, Altitude, Inca architecture, Mortar (masonry), Trapezoid, Conquistador, Inti Raymi and Sacsayhuamán. Empire, road, storehouse, textile, relay, province, masonry, census, decimal and citadel were checked against the entry for the term in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/), under the same license; earthquake and World Heritage Site are given in their common sense. The history in the meanings and the facts was checked a second time against World History Encyclopedia (https://www.worldhistory.org/): the entries Inca Civilization, Inca Government, Inca Architecture, Quipu, Cusco, Machu Picchu and Coricancha and the articles The Inca Road System, Inca Food & Agriculture, Inca Textiles and Pizarro & the Fall of the Inca Empire. The fact after each meaning is in our own words. Licence: own work
How it works
These Inca worksheets for 5th grade are three matching sheets of twelve terms on the Inca Empire, each with an answer key. The first has Cusco, Andes, Sapa Inca, Quechua, terrace, quipu, llama and chasqui.
Read the full guide
Farming, work and travel
In Set, the second sheet has potato, freeze-dry, storehouse, mit'a, ayllu, tambo, rope bridge, foot plow, textile, pack animal, altitude and relay.
Building, counting and the Spanish
The third has Tawantinsuyu, province, masonry, mortar, trapezoid, earthquake, census, decimal, conquistador, Inti Raymi, World Heritage Site and citadel. The fact printed with each term under the tool was checked against Wikipedia and World History Encyclopedia.
Cusco is also spelled Cuzco, and quipu khipu. The sheets use the first spelling of each.
Questions and answers
Where was the Inca Empire?
In western South America, along the Andes. At its largest it joined Peru with parts of what are now Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Colombia, and it was ruled from Cusco.
What happened to the Inca Empire?
A war between two brothers for the throne had just ended when a small Spanish force captured the Inca ruler at Cajamarca in 1532. Diseases from Europe struck the empire too. The last Inca stronghold, Vilcabamba, fell in 1572.
Did the Inca have a writing system?
None is known. Records were kept on quipus, and most of the quipus studied so far hold numbers. Whether some of them also recorded words is still an open question.
Is there an Inca worksheet PDF for 5th grade?
Yes, by way of the print window. After Print worksheet, set the printer to Save as PDF, and one file holds the sheet you chose and its answer key.